Back cover manufacturing method

ABSTRACT

A back cover manufacturing method includes providing a striped sheet, bending the striped sheet along a long side of the striped sheet to form a hem, cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly forming a plurality of striped sections, and bending the plurality of striped sections to form a back cover. The back cover is used for being disposed in a backlight module to hold at least one optical component of the backlight module.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a back cover manufacturing method, and more specifically, to a back cover manufacturing method by bending a striped sheet to form a back cover.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In general, a conventional backlight module has a back cover and disposal of the back cover is as shown in FIG. 1, which is an exploded diagram of a backlight module 10 according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, the backlight module 10 includes a plurality of light emitting units 12, a plurality of optical films 14, a plastic frame 16, a light guide plate 18, and a back cover 20. The plurality of light emitting units 12 is disposed at a side of the light guide plate 18 as a backlight source. The plurality of optical films 14 is disposed on the plastic frame 16 to make light emitted from the light guide plate 18 transform into a planar light source with sufficient brightness and uniform distribution. The light guide plate 18 and the plastic frame 16 are disposed on the back cover sequentially. Accordingly, the back cover 20 can support related optical components in the backlight module 10 and increase the structural strength of the backlight module 10.

In the prior art, forming of the back cover 20 is performed by a material removing process. Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a diagram of the back cover 20 in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the back cover 20 is put on a punching machine and a punching head is then utilized to punch the back cover 20 for removing material of a center region on the back cover 20 to correspondingly form a hollow region 21 after bending the back cover 20 to form a hem 19. Thus, the purpose of reducing the overall weight of the back cover 20 can be achieved accordingly. However, the said material removing method may cause unnecessary waste of material, so as to increase the material cost of the backlight module 10 in manufacturing the back cover 20.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide a back cover manufacturing method by bending a striped sheet to form a back cover for solving the aforesaid problem.

The present invention provides a back cover manufacturing method. The back cover manufacturing method includes providing a striped sheet, bending the striped sheet along a long side of the striped sheet to form a hem, cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly forming a plurality of striped sections, and bending the plurality of striped sections to form a back cover. The back cover is used for being disposed in a backlight module to hold at least one optical component of the backlight module.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention utilizes the design in which a striped sheet is bent to form a back cover for holding backlight components in a backlight module, to replace the aforesaid material removing design. In such a manner, since the back cover manufacturing method provided by the present invention can be completed without additionally performing a material removing process, the present invention can efficiently solve the material waste problem mentioned in the prior art, so as to decrease the material cost of the backlight module in manufacturing the back cover.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded diagram of a backlight module according to the prior art.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a back cover in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an exploded diagram of a backlight module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a back cover manufacturing method for forming a back cover in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a striped sheet mentioned in FIG. 4 after a hem and a plurality of striped sections are formed.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of the striped sheet in FIG. 5 after being bent to form the back cover.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a back cover according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of a back cover according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a back cover according to another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Please refer to FIG. 3, which is an exploded diagram of a backlight module 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the backlight module 100 includes a plurality of light emitting units 102, a plurality of optical films 104, a plastic frame 106, a light guide plate 108, and a back cover 110. The plurality of light emitting units 102 is disposed at a side of the light guide plate 108 for emitting light to be incident into the light guide plate 108. The light emitting unit 102 is preferably an LED (Light Emitting Diode). The plurality of optical films 104 (e.g. a lens film and a diffuser film) is disposed on the plastic frame 106 disposed on the light guide plate 108, so that light emitted from the light guide plate 108 can be transformed into a planar light source with sufficient brightness and uniform distribution via the optical films 104. The light guide plate 108 is disposed on the back cover 110. Via the aforesaid disposition, the back cover 110 can support the related optical components (i.e. the plurality of light emitting units 102, the plurality of optical films 104, the plastic frame 106, and the light guide plate 108) in the backlight module 100 and increase the structural strength of the backlight module 100.

More detailed description for the forming process of the back cover 110 is provided as follows. Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a flowchart of aback cover manufacturing method for forming the back cover 110 in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The back cover manufacturing method includes the following steps.

Step 400: Provide a striped sheet 112;

Step 402: Bend the striped sheet 112 along a long side 111 of the striped sheet 112 to form a hem 113;

Step 404: Cut the striped sheet 112 to make the striped sheet 112 have at least one concave portion 114 formed thereon for correspondingly forming a plurality of striped sections 115 on the striped sheet 112;

Step 406: Bend the plurality of striped sections 115 to form the back cover 110.

The aforesaid steps are described in details herein. Please refer to FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6. FIG. 5 is a diagram of the striped sheet 112 mentioned in FIG. 4 after the hem 113 and the plurality of striped sections 115 are formed. FIG. 6 is a diagram of the striped sheet 112 in FIG. 5 after being bent to form the back cover 110. At first, the striped sheet 112 is provided to form the back cover 110 (Step 400), and then the striped sheet 112 is bent along the long side 111 to form the hem 113 (Step 402), wherein the striped sheet 112 is preferably made of steel material or aluminum material in this embodiment. In such a manner, the overall structural strength of the back cover 110 can be further increased by forming of the hem 113.

Subsequently, the striped sheet 112 is cut to have at least one concave portion 114 formed thereon by a conventional cutting process, so as to correspondingly form the plurality of striped sections 115 on the striped sheet 112 (Step 404). To be more specific, in this embodiment, the striped sheet 112 is preferably cut to form four concave portions 114 as shown in FIG. 5 by a punching process, so as to correspondingly form five striped sections 115 on the striped sheet 112.

Finally, in Step 406, the striped sections 115 on the striped sheet 112 as shown in FIG. 5 are bent sequentially by a punching process to make adjacent striped sections 115 perpendicular to each other, so as to form the back cover 110 as shown in FIG. 6. In other embodiment, Step 406 can be performed by other bending process, such as utilizing a tool to bend the striped sections 115 on the striped sheet 112 as shown in FIG. 5 sequentially. In such a manner, the back cover 110 can be used for holding the plurality of light emitting units 102, the plurality of optical films 104, the plastic frame 106, and the light guide plate 108 and increasing the structural strength of the backlight module 100. Furthermore, since the forming process of the back cover 110 can be completed without additionally performing a material removing process, waste of material can be avoided accordingly so as to reduce the material cost of the backlight module 100 in manufacturing the back cover 110. Furthermore, for further improving the structural strength of the back cover 110, an additional connecting member can be utilized to connect to a first end P₁ and a second end P₂ of the back cover 110 as shown in FIG. 6 for forming a back frame. The related description for the structural design of the connecting member and the related connection design are commonly seen in the prior art, such as utilizing another striped sheet to connect to the first end P₁ and the second end P₂ of the back cover 110 in a screw locking manner, and therefore omitted herein.

It should be mentioned that forming of the back cover is not limited to the aforesaid embodiment and varies with number of the concaves portions and the striped sections on the striped sheet. For example, according the aforesaid steps, the striped sheet 112 is cut to form three concave portions 114 thereon for correspondingly forming four striped sections 115, and then the four striped sections 115 are bent to make any two adjacent striped sections 115 perpendicular to each other, so as to form a back cover 110′ in a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 7. In another embodiment, according the aforesaid steps, the striped sheet 112 is cut to form two concave portions 114 thereon for correspondingly forming three striped sections 115, and then the three striped sections 115 are bent to make any two adjacent striped sections 115 perpendicular to each other, so as to form a back cover 110″ in a U shape as shown in FIG. 8. In another embodiment, according the aforesaid steps, the striped sheet 112 is cut to form one concave portion 114 thereon for correspondingly forming two striped sections 115, and then the two striped sections 115 are bent to be perpendicular to each other, so as to form a back cover 110′″ in an L shape as shown in FIG. 9. Subsequently, the back cover 110′″ can be assembled with another back cover 110′″ to form a back frame. As for other derived embodiments, they can be reasoned according to the aforesaid embodiments. In other words, all designs in which a striped sheet is bent to form a back cover may fall within the scope of the present invention.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention utilizes the design in which a striped sheet is bent to form a back cover for holding backlight components in a backlight module, to replace the aforesaid material removing design. In such a manner, since the back cover manufacturing method provided by the present invention can be completed without additionally performing a material removing process, the present invention can efficiently solve the material waste problem mentioned in the prior art, so as to decrease the material cost of the backlight module in manufacturing the back cover.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A back cover manufacturing method comprising: providing a striped sheet; bending the striped sheet along a long side of the striped sheet to form a hem; cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly forming a plurality of striped sections; and bending the plurality of striped sections to form a back cover; wherein the back cover is used for being disposed in a backlight module to hold at least one optical component of the backlight module.
 2. The back cover manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly forming the plurality of striped sections comprises: utilizing a punching process to cut the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly from the plurality of striped sections.
 3. The back cover manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein bending the plurality of striped sections to form the back cover comprises: utilizing a punching process to bend the plurality of striped sections to form the back cover.
 4. The back cover manufacturing method of claim 1 further comprising: utilizing a connecting member to connecting to two ends of the back cover.
 5. The back cover manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly forming the plurality of striped sections comprises cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have four concave portions for correspondingly forming five striped sections, and bending the plurality of striped sections to form the back cover comprises bending the five striped sections to make adjacent striped sections perpendicular to each other for forming the back cover in a rectangular shape.
 6. The back cover manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly forming the plurality of striped sections comprises cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have three concave portions for correspondingly forming four striped sections, and bending the plurality of striped sections to form the back cover comprises bending the four striped sections to make adjacent striped sections perpendicular to each other for forming the back cover in a rectangular shape.
 7. The back cover manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly forming the plurality of striped sections comprises cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have two concave portions for correspondingly forming three striped sections, and bending the plurality of striped sections to form the back cover comprises bending the three striped sections to make adjacent striped sections perpendicular to each other for forming the back cover in a U shape.
 8. The back cover manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have at least one concave portion formed thereon for correspondingly forming the plurality of striped sections comprises cutting the striped sheet to make the striped sheet have one concave portion for correspondingly forming two striped sections, and bending the plurality of striped sections to form the back cover comprises bending the two striped sections to make the two striped sections perpendicular to each other for forming the back cover in an L shape.
 9. The back cover manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein the striped sheet is made of steel material or aluminum material. 